What did Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones have to say after loss to Green Bay Packers?
Following their first-round playoff exit, the Dallas Cowboys have got some soul-searching to do and it seems the team’s owner has started the process.
Another year and another disappointment, that’s the story in Frisco, Texas. A day after the Dallas Cowboys crashed out of the 2024 NFL playoffs, the team and its front office are left picking up the pieces. The question now is whether America’s team will deliver on the obvious promise that it has.
The Dallas Cowboys aren’t in a good place
If you missed it, the second-seeded Dallas Cowboys lost their NFL playoff opening round game 48-32 against the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers on Monday night. The defeat brought to an end a 16-game home winning streak at AT&T Stadium and with it the Cowboys’ season as well. Needless to say, the mood in the locker room post-game was less than celebratory. “It hasn’t been 24 hours yet, and I’m still in shock,” Dallas Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis said Monday when asked for his thoughts about the feeling in the team following the game. “More shock than anything.’’
In case you didn’t know, Dallas has registered at least 12 wins for three consecutive seasons under head coach Mike McCarthy, a feat that actually matches that which was achieved by the Cowboys’ 1990s dynasty run between 1992 and 1995, a period during which the team won three Super Bowls in four seasons. With McCarthy being the first Cowboys coach since that era to achieve such an accomplishment, it goes without saying that the feeling in the Cowboys’ locker room is somber to say the least. Consider for a moment, that the Cowboys - despite three straight 12-win seasons - have failed to make the conference championship in any of them. “It’s always frustrating,” Lewis added as he addressed the lack of postseason success compared with regular season wins. “The end goal for any team is to go to the Super Bowl. So for most teams like us, we always want to go to the Super Bowl. It’s disappointing.” Cowboys wide receiver and returner KaVontae Turpin echoed the sentiment. “It’s a messed up feeling. Everybody around here is frustrated because we weren’t supposed to lose, but that’s just the National Football League. Green Bay came in hot and spicy and they just stayed with it. We couldn’t stop them.” Interestingly, Lewis also spoke of McCarthy’s message to the team. “He felt for us,” Lewis said relaying McCarthy’s message to the team. “He wanted it really bad for us given the caliber of guys we are all together. We wanted it.”
What does Jerry Jones have to say about the Cowboys’ loss?
As one of the most recognizable owners in the NFL, the words of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones were always going to be worth listening to. Yet, it’s got to be said that Jerry Jones - according to Lewis - was neither poetic or abstract, but rather frank and to the point when speaking of dissatisfaction about the team’s early postseason exit. “We got to win,” Lewis said when relaying Jones’ message in a meeting with the players on Monday. “This is the Dallas Cowboys, we had everything to win. We can’t let this feeling keep going on. I just feel like he (Jones) wants to win right now. The urgency is now. It was always that, and we always had that on our shoulders, but he made that clear. That was his point.” Turpin also spoke of the 81-year-old’s talk of the ticking clock. “Jerry talked about how he doesn’t have too many years left in this business,” Turpin said. “He just wants it bad. He wants a ring bad.”
So, what comes next for the Cowboys?
That’s a good question. For starters, McCarthy’s future remains uncertain. In the four years that he’s been in charge in Dallas, he’s registered a 42-25 record (62.7% win percentage), giving him the highest career win percentage of any coach in the team’s history. Indeed, Lewis was quick to point out McCarthy’s success in comparison to that of Jason Garrett who spent 10 seasons holding the reins in Dallas to the tune of an 86-67 record i.e., a 55.9% win percentage. McCarthy’s postseason record is 1-3 so far. That single win came last year against an about-to-retire, 45-year-old Tom Brady and the NFC South champion Buccaneers in Tampa.
“This is one of the hardest jobs in America, quarterback and the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys,” Lewis said when asked about McCarthy’s time in Dallas. “I feel like he’s done a tremendous job all things in consideration. It’s hard, all things considered. A lot of media, a lot of people against you, all the outside noise and we just made sure that we stuck our arms around each other and stayed together. I think we did a really good job. He helped me a lot with my career, and I feel like I learned a lot with him. ... Look what he did in comparison to what happened when he wasn’t here,” Lewis said. “We were struggling to be over .500. He had three straight 12-win seasons. So yeah, I hope so (McCarthy returns).” Ultimately, there has been no word on whether or not we will see wholesale changes in Dallas, but the reality is something has got to give.